Walk With Me
by ShardsandAshes
Summary: War changes people, even people who hated each other. Back at Hogwarts for their eighth year, Draco and Hermione learn about themselves, about each other, and find that even the darkest of times can give birth to the most amazing and precious gift of all...love.
1. Beauty

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

**AN****: This story is a chronological series of drabbles written using the prompts for the 100 Prompts, 100 Drabbles, 100 Words or Less challenge on HPFC. However, I will only try to keep the word count for each chapter under 1,000 words. That's my definition of a drabble. The prompt will be the chapter title.**

** This story is somewhat AU. It is set after the Final Battle in ****Deathly Hallows****. The Epilogue does not apply. It is set during Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy's "eighth year." All the deaths in the Final Battle remain. Hermione directly saved Draco from the **_**Fiendfyre**_**. Hogwarts reopened in September after the Final Battle. Hermione returned to Hogwarts as well as Draco, but Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley joined the aurors. The Malfoys were fully pardoned. Hermione's parents died in Australia in a car accident. Hermione and Draco are Head Girl and Head Boy, and Minerva McGonagall is the headmistress. The main pairing is Dramione (Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger) though there may be other pairings mentioned. There will also be family/friendship interactions with the Malfoys and Minerva McGonagall. The rating will not go beyond teen. This is my first time writing this pairing. Please read and review! **

Draco Malfoy had always thought he knew what beauty was. Growing up in the midst of wealth and privilege, beauty was a foregone conclusion. It was the most expensive, the most luxurious, the finest thing or place or person available. There was a reason, after all, for the creation of words like "mudblood." The purity of blood was the highest form of beauty.

But when Hermione Granger dragged him away from the _Fiendfyre_, saving his life, and her sleeve fell back exposing Bellatrix's hideous scar, he realized that he'd never seen anything more beautiful than her mercy.


	2. Love

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

"Before I left on the train, I heard my father tell my mother that he loved her," Draco said.

Hermione glanced up from her book.

"Surely that didn't surprise you, Draco. My mother and father said it all the time to each other." Blinking back tears, she distracted herself by asking him, "Haven't you heard your mother and father say I love you?"

Draco didn't meet her eyes. "No. That was the first time. It's not the pureblood way to speak of such things." He paused and said softly, "Yet Father did."

"Why?" Hermione asked.

Draco Malfoy had no answer.


	3. Dream

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

He screamed in the throes of a nightmare.

"Draco! Wake up! It's alright! Open your eyes! It's just a dream!"

It was the slap to his face that finally snapped him out of his remembered agony to find that Hermione Granger was sitting on his bed trying to calm him.

He pulled away more slowly than he should have, feeling an unfamiliar blush warm his face.

When he would have apologized, she shook her head, absently rubbing her scarred arm.

"Don't bother, Draco. I understand."

And he was oddly comforted to know that she did.


	4. Haunted

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

"I will not marry Astoria Greengrass, Father," Draco said.

Lucius looked only faintly surprised. "May I ask why?" he inquired.

Draco stood stiffly in his father's study, arms folded across his chest.

"I am a haunted man. She deserves better than a broken soul whom she will never understand."

Lucius set down his wine glass and reached out to grasp his son's face in his hands.

"But there are others who are just as haunted as yourself, aren't there?" Lucius asked.

Hermione's face flitted through his mind, and a bit of Draco's tension melted away.

"Yes, Father, there are."


	5. Memory

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

"I have brought a Pensieve for each of you," Minerva McGonagall said. "You may put in them all the troubling memories that you have of the war."

The headmistress held out the Pensieves to them, but neither Draco nor Hermione moved.

Finally, Draco said, "No thank you, Headmistress. I'll keep my memories despite how much they trouble me. They are changing me, for the better, I hope."

Hermione almost smiled at Draco. "I'll keep mine too. Others paid with their lives. Our memories seem a ridiculously light consequence in comparison."

For the first time since the Final Battle, Minerva smiled.


	6. Fragile

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

"I was brought up to believe that women are fragile creatures who need men to protect them." He stood beside her in the silent Great Hall as they paused for a moment in their nightly rounds.

"Do you still believe that?" Hermione asked.

Draco remembered Hermione saving him during the Final Battle. He remembered his mother's lie to the Dark Lord to save him. He remembered Luna's bravery when she was imprisoned in the Malfoy's dungeon, and he remembered Minerva McGonagall dueling Severus Snape. He remembered the Weasleys trying to keep Ginny out of the battle.

Draco smiled. "Not anymore."


	7. Celebration

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"I'm grateful that the headmistress excused us from the celebration tonight. I'm just not in the mood to celebrate," Hermione said as they left the chaos of the Halloween party to return to their rooms.

"I know exactly what you mean. Actually, I am going to take advantage of the extra time to perform a ritual," Draco said.

"What kind of ritual?" she asked.

He turned to face her. "According to the Old Ways, today is Samhain, a day for remembering those who have died."

Hermione swallowed hard. "May I join you?"

Draco smiled. "I was hoping that you would."


	8. Secret

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

"I've never been more scared in my life." Draco sat on the floor of the Astronomy Tower amidst half-burned candles.

Staring into the flickering flames, Hermione said, "I think that being forced into becoming a Death Eater to save your family is more than enough reason to be terrified."

Draco sighed. "I was taught that it was shameful to be afraid."

"There's nothing to be ashamed of, and admitting it makes you more of a man, not less of one." Hermione smiled. "But if you'd like, it will be our secret."

Draco covered her hand with his in silent thanks.


	9. Promise

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

"I don't understand why you decided to come back to redo your seventh year. You could have had any job in the Ministry that you wanted." Draco put down his book and waited for Hermione's response.

When she finally answered, her eyes were distant. "When I was young, I made a promise to my parents. I promised them that whatever I accomplished in my life would be a result of my own merit and not some undeserved fame or connections. I've never broken that promise, and I never will."

Draco watched her thoughtfully as she returned to her studying.


	10. Innocence

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

"You decided not to play Quidditch this year?" Lucius asked.

Draco shook his head. "I'm much more concerned with studying now."

Lucius's grey eyes were touched with sadness as he looked at his son.

"Must you always be consumed by books? What of your innocent pastimes?"

Draco looked at his father, and though he kept his gaze mild, the accusation came through clearly.

"Whatever innocence I had was lost the night that I knelt at the feet of the Dark Lord, and he burned his Mark into my skin…a Mark just like yours, Father."

Lucius watched his son walk away.


	11. Moonlight

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

"There was no moonlight the night that I was Marked."

Draco felt rather than saw Hermione come up behind him as they watched the full moon from the Astronomy Tower. They were supposed to be doing research for a project, but the project was long finished. They suspected that the headmistress knew that, but she had let their excuse go without a word when she had met them on her nightly rounds.

Hermione laid her hand on Draco's arm, and he tensed for a moment before allowing her cold hand to slide into his. Absently, he cast a warming charm over them.

Hermione broke the silence. "Do you hear him sometimes? Lord Voldemort, I mean. Do you hear him in your mind?"

Draco swallowed audibly as his face reddened. "Yes. I hear him in my dreams." He paused and softly admitted. "And sometimes I hear him when I'm awake."

Hermione turned, catching his grey eyes with her brown ones. She took a tentative step toward him. Then he understood.

Slowly, gently, Draco reached out and slipped his arm around her. She allowed it. After a few awkward moments, she relaxed and laid her head on his shoulder.

"I hear Bellatrix," Hermione said.

He slipped his other arm around her, drawing her close. She didn't pull away.

Draco whispered, "I know."

Concealed in the shadows, a tabby cat kept watch over them.


	12. Whisper

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

That night, it was Hermione who woke up screaming.

Strong arms slipped around her, but they loosened immediately when she resisted. Her vision cleared to find Draco beside her and her wand in her hand.

He smiled tiredly and said, "You do this for me. It seems only right that I do the same." He eyed her wand warily. "I thought I was quick with my wand, but you had yours at my throat before I even had a chance to move."

Hermione sighed, setting her wand aside. "I'm sorry, Draco. After all that's happened, it's just second nature to me."

He drew his hand gently down her face and tucked her brown curls behind her ear.

"I understand, Hermione. And I will keep telling you that until you believe me and stop apologizing." He drew her back into his arms, and she finally relaxed as he rested his chin on her shoulder.

After a while, Draco said, "I remember a time when I was young. One night, I got sick. Mother was away so Father took care of me. The house elves tried to help, but he wouldn't let them. He held me in his arms all night and read to me in whispers from _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_. That is where my mother found us the next morning when she returned. Father was sitting in her favorite rocker in the nursery holding me with the book open on his lap and both he and I sound asleep."

Hermione did not try to turn around and look at Draco's expression although she wanted to. Showing emotions was something that he still wasn't completely comfortable with and she wasn't going to push him.

But after a few moments, she said, "I think it's going to be a while before I can sleep. Would you…would you read to me?"

He hesitated. Then, he picked up her copy of _Hogwarts: A History_ from her desk and began to read.

That night, there were no more nightmares.


	13. Echo

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

**AN****: I may be altering canon in saying that Severus Snape's portrait has not yet appeared in Minerva's office at Hogwarts. And in my head canon, Severus Snape is Draco Malfoy's godfather, and Draco uses the term "uncle" for him as well. **

Like all extremely old buildings, Hogwarts had creaks and groans and echoes, and rebuilding had only worsened that. Hermione couldn't help but imagine that the sounds echoing through the half empty halls of the school were the cries and screams of those who had fought and died within its boundaries.

There was a time that would have frightened her. It no longer did.

She saw Draco coming around the corner of the dungeons and slowed to a stop to let him catch up. They'd agreed to confront at least a few of those echoes tonight. After the war, Draco had learned that he had been his godfather's sole heir and thus had a right to enter his private suite in the castle. Slughorn was the potions professor, of course, but he had a suite elsewhere. Severus's private rooms had not been touched.

That would change today. Minerva had released them from their Head Boy and Head Girl duties so that they could investigate what Severus had left behind. They had noticed the sheen of tears in the headmistress's eyes when she spoke of Severus. Draco found himself hoping that there might be a magical portrait of his godfather in the dungeon so that the headmistress could finally make her peace with Severus Snape. A portrait of Severus had yet to appear in Minerva's office, and everyone assumed that Hogwarts's magic refused to recognize the validity of Severus's service as headmaster.

Draco had not imagined that this would be so difficult, but he found himself hesitating at the door to his godfather's suite. Hermione reached out and grasped his hand tightly. He took a deep breath and gave her a small smile before drawing his wand to release the spells sealing the rooms.

The door opened. The magic had worked perfectly; the rooms had not been touched. But it was the large item covered by a drape and leaning against a wall in the sitting room that caught Draco and Hermione's attention. Hastily, Hermione removed the drape as Draco propped the revealed portrait up on a chair. Swallowing hard, Draco spoke the spell to wake the portrait.

Severus Snape, in full headmaster regalia, opened his eyes. His dark gaze seemed to drink them in before turning to Draco.

"Clearly, I am dead. But you, Draco, are alive. And Miss Granger, you appear to be as well. Am I to deduce then that the light side won?"

Draco nearly choked on his response. "Yes, Godfather, the light won. And oh Merlin, it is so good to hear you again!" He paused, attempting to get himself back under control. Hermione grasped his other hand, smiling. Draco squared his shoulders and faced his godfather.

"Uncle Severus, I have so much to tell you." Then he glanced at Hermione. "We have so much to tell you." That glance told Severus all he really needed to know.

For one of those rare times, Severus Snape smiled.


	14. Jealousy

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

It took over an hour for the two of them to tell the whole tale and to answer all of Severus's questions. Severus looked by turns, angry to the point of being murderous, relieved, amused, and sad as well when he heard the list of those who had died, including Vincent Crabbe. He was clearly pleased to find that Lucius and Narcissa had not only survived but that the entire Malfoy family had been pardoned, but he noted his godson's dark look when Draco spoke of Lucius.

"Dragon, are you and your father getting not getting along?" Hermione bit back a smile to hear the pet name that Severus used for Draco, but it clearly had the desired effect. Draco relaxed slightly, and his expression lightened a bit.

Draco sighed. "You could say that. It is proving to be much harder than I thought it would be to forget that it was my father's decisions, first and foremost, that put us all in grave danger and cost so many people their lives. I took the Mark to save the lives of my family and to try to redeem us all from the cost of his mistakes." Draco twirled his wand distractedly. "I know he regrets what he did, and I know that he and Mother came back to save me. But that doesn't make it any easier to forgive him for what he's done."

Severus eyed Draco knowingly, glancing pointedly at Hermione before looking back at his godson.

"I suspect that you don't think your association with Miss Granger will go over well with him either," Severus said.

Draco laughed bitterly. "You are the master of understatement, Severus. He took my refusal of Astoria Greengrass well enough, but I doubt a brilliant muggleborn is going to be high on his list of alternates." He stopped abruptly and slid an arm around Hermione's waist. More easily this time, she laid her head on his shoulder as she met Severus's amused gaze.

Then Draco's gray gaze captured Severus's dark one again. "However, I am not about to let his opinions dictate my life any longer. My life is my own now, and I will spend it with whom I chose. As it happens, I have no doubts that Mother will support my choice. If Father does not, it will be his loss. I will not let my fear of his disapproval take Hermione away from me."

Hermione had been silent, allowing Draco to have some much needed conversation with his godfather, but she couldn't help but respond to his unexpected declaration.

"I didn't know that I meant that much to you," she said softly.

He turned to her, cupping her face in his hands. "You do."

Severus smiled a little sadly as he watched them, remembering the witch who had almost been his whom he had lost forever. Draco had clearly come out of his torturous experiences a better person, and Draco the boy had just as clearly become Draco the man. He could be nothing but happy for his godson, and yet it was happiness tinged with jealousy and regret.

He remembered Albus's question.

"After all this time?"

And he remembered his response.

"Always."

Clearing his throat to cover his loss of composure, Severus pulled himself from his memories.

"The two of you have the chance that I never had. Don't even think of wasting it," Severus said.

"We won't, Professor Snape," Hermione replied.

Severus was about to correct her and remind her that she was no longer his student. He was about to offer her the use of his first name. He was about to ask her and Draco what they planned to do after graduation.

When he glanced back at them, he abruptly closed his mouth. All that could wait.

After all, there was nothing more important than Draco and Hermione's sweet, tentative first kiss.

He blinked back tears as he remembered red hair and green eyes, and he hoped that Draco and Hermione could find the kind of happiness together that he never had.

If they could, Severus would count it all worth it.


	15. Passion

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

**AN****: To those who have been reviewing, favoriting, and following, thank you so much! You make me want to keep writing. Just a reminder, I'm interpreting the characters as I see fit. In my view, the Malfoy family is not perfectly okay after the war, no more than any other family is. Draco's relationship with his father in particular is not easy. That will be explored more as the story continues. Please remember that in this AU, Hermione's parents are dead.**

They stayed the remainder of the day with Severus, sorting his personal possessions as he oversaw them from his portrait. Hermione was delighted when Severus gave her the small collection of muggle novels that he kept in his quarters with a promise to give her the rest of them when they had another day free to go sort out Spinner's End.

Severus had only a few books on transfiguration, but they were all rare editions. He directed Hermione to take them up to the headmistress with an invitation for her to visit him that evening after her duties were completed. When Hermione left to deliver the books, Draco turned back to face his godfather.

"I was afraid that if I stayed near her much longer after that kiss I might be tempted to take things too far," Draco said, red-faced. "Sometimes it seems like I can't think clearly when I'm around her."

Severus smiled gently. "It's perfectly normal, Dragon. You care for her. This is the way these things go, at least, when the affection between partners is willing rather than coerced or compelled."

Draco scoffed. "Do you mean like my parents? Theirs was an arranged marriage."

The elder wizard narrowed his eyes. "Do not be so quick to discount your parents' affection for each other. Just because it is not paraded before the public eye does not make it any less real."

Draco paused. "They came back for me."

"Yes," Severus said. "But more than that, they came back together." He considered. "Draco, think on this. Even after all that has happened to your father, with your father, and because of your father, Narcissa has never once strayed from his side. Don't you think that counts for something? Didn't you tell me that you had heard them tell each other just a few weeks ago that they loved each other?"

Sheepishly, Draco shrugged. "I supposed that it was out of some sense of obligation. After this many years, I would expect them to be comfortable with each other."

Severus shook his head. "I think, perhaps, that I know them better than anyone, even you, Draco. I was the only one there when Lucius returned from Azkaban, and I can assure you that I have never seen your mother run as she ran in that moment. She literally leapt into his arms, and he caught her."

"What did they say?" Draco asked, captivated by his godfather's story despite himself.

"Nothing at all," Severus answered. "But your mother wept." He paused and then continued more quietly. "And your father wept too."

Draco jumped to his feet and stammered out, "That's impossible! My father has never cried!"

Severus waited until Draco's outburst had spent itself. He chuckled.

"If Lucius has you believing that than you are more gullible than I thought! But is it really so difficult for you to believe that they love each other, Dragon? Yes, their marriage was arranged. In the beginning, there was little more than passion between them."

Draco nodded. That much did not surprise him.

Severus continued. "But I was there when you were born. I watched your mother put you in your father's arms for the first time. He was scared. Did you know that? Your father was terrified he would drop you or hurt you somehow. Narcissa calmed him down. And so he held you. He wept then, too. They both did."

When his godfather didn't continue, Draco prompted, "What happened after that?"

Severus smiled. "Your father looked into your mother's eyes and told her that he loved her."

Draco found himself at a loss for words.

Later that night, he said to Hermione, "Tell me the story of your parents."

She swallowed audibly, blinking back tears yet again as she searched for words.

Finally, she began, "The one thing that I always knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was that my parents loved each other and that they loved me."

As she spoke, Draco listened.


	16. Lies

**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

"How much of what you taught me were lies, Father?"

Draco's question caught Lucius unaware. He stood beside his son in the Head Boy suite. Lucius and Narcissa were at the school for Hogwarts's newly-instituted "family night." Hermione Granger had excused herself to visit the headmistress and to give Draco and his father some time alone. Lucius had said nothing when Narcissa came up with a reason to visit the headmistress as well.

Lucius did not meet Draco's eyes. "I do not know what you mean, Draco," he said.

Draco laughed, and Lucius was startled to realize it sounded far too much like his own, that of a jaded, troubled man rather than the half-grown boy Draco ought to have been.

His son shook his head. "The least you can do is to stop lying to me. You know exactly what I mean. Blood purity, blood feuds, blood traitors, and our own family's vaunted superiority…in the end, it was all dust and ashes. The Dark Lord himself was a half-blood! My godfather who played a much bigger part in saving my life than you did was also a half-blood. And the most brilliant witch of our age who happens to be my girlfriend is a muggleborn. Where is all of that blood purity nonsense now, Father? Where are all those lies you taught me? What good was any of it?"

Lucius fiddled with his cane. "It appears that I may have been mistaken," he said softly.

His son laughed bitterly again, and Lucius felt a stab of pain sharper than any Cruciatus Curse the Dark Lord had inflicted upon him. This cynical, broken man standing before him was the ultimate punishment for his crimes, and Lucius thought for a moment that he would have preferred the Dementor's Kiss to facing the ruins of his son.

"You may have been mistaken? Merlin, Father, are you still so arrogant that you are incapable of saying you're sorry? You really should try it sometime. I have certainly learned how to say it. But even more important, I've learned how to mean it. I seriously doubt that you do." His son's smile was as charming as ever, but there was the too-familiar hollowness there of a man who knew that he was playing a part for an audience rather than expressing real emotions.

Draco turned away, grabbing the advanced transfiguration text that the headmistress had let him borrow. Now that he could focus solely on his studies, he was finding that he had a talent for the subject. In an odd reversal, Hermione's talent seemed to be potions, something that had delighted Severus.

Draco's hand was on the door knob when his father's voice stopped him.

"Son, you must believe me. I did believe him. I believed all of it. Just as my father taught me, I taught you. It was all I knew how to do. I never intended for this to happen!" he called out, his voice ending on a note of desperation quite unlike the aloof man the wizarding world knew.

Draco did not turn. "I think that last sentence is the first true thing that you have said to me in a very long time."

Tucking the book under his arm, he opened the door and shut it behind him.

Once again, Lucius Malfoy found himself alone.


End file.
